38 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



specimen after the completion of the distinctly distasteful operation. 

 I rather fancy it was Doubleday who introduced crushed laurel leaves, 

 but these were not always available, and I do not know who made the 

 brilliant discovery of the cyanide bottle, but whoever it was, he 

 deserves the Nobel prize for humanity in the killing of insects. In 

 Samouelle's time chloroform and ether were of course unknown, and 

 he quotes Haworth, 1803, as to one method of giving, let us say, a 

 Privet hawk-moth the coup de r/race. The Italics are Haworth's. 



" When the larger moths must be killed, destroy them at once by 

 the insertion of a stroni/ red hot needle into their thickest parts, be/jimiinff 

 at the front of the thorax. If this is properly done, instead of lingerinrf 

 tMroi((/h several daijs, theij are dead in a moment." The barbarity of this 

 proceeding evidently strikes him, as he enters into a long disquisition 

 to prove "that insects being animals of cold and slui/f/ish juices," do 

 not feel as much as warm blooded animals, which, however true, affords 

 small satisfaction to the hawk-moth, whose vitals are being reduced to 

 a cinder by a red hot needle. Samouelle rather improves on this by the 

 following observations : " This order of insects (butterflies and moths) 

 require no further preparation than merely passing a pin through the 

 thorax ; but as some would live for a considerable time impaled in this 

 way, and this mode of killing them must be repugnant to every feeling 

 mind, we shall merely state that we have succeeded in destroying the 

 life of the largest moth by immersing the body in boiling tvater . 

 the wings should be pressed together, and held firm by fingers and 

 thumb, so that the upper surfaces be not rubbed, which would spoil the 

 specimen." One can imagine a painful struggle between the tender- 

 hearted entomologist, and the hawk-moth objecting strenuously to 

 being par-boiled. 



" With regard to the smaller species," he continues, "they are, in 

 general, soon killed, as passing the pin through them will frequently 

 deprive them of life in a few minutes ; but the usual method is to 

 collect the very minute moths in separate pill boxes, and kill them by 

 the fumes of sulphur." Another method was to put the boxes in front 

 of a hot fire until death released the sufTerers." 



In those early days entomological pins and setting boards were quite 

 unknown and setting was accomplished I believe very satisfactorily by 

 means of card braces. Camphor and Turpentine were used as the 

 chief preventative of mites and mould. 



Our Author divides his book into two parts, one a description of 

 the Linnean genera and species of English insects and the other " The 

 Entomologist's Calendar, exhibiting the time of appearance and 

 habitation of near three thousand species of British insects." It 

 seems to have been the opinion in those days that the majority of 

 butterflies and moths were extremely short lived, as he writes " As 

 many of the Lepidoptera last but a few days in the perfect state, I 

 have distinguished the time of the month in which such species appear 

 by the following B. beginning, etc." 



This calendar is well worthy of comparison with " Practical Hints 



* Barbarous methods seem to have come down to a much later date, e.g.. 

 Dr. Paul Girod in his Atlas de poche des pojAllons de France, Suisse, et Belgique, 

 published in 1898, considers the following advice necessary (p. 149). " Apres avoir 

 tue la chenille dans le flacon a cyanure, ce qui est preferable a la vider vivante, on 

 etale, etc." The italics are mine. — G.W. 



